EFT and The Origin of a Thought

Some studies suggest we have around 50,000 - 60,000 thoughts per day. How many of those thoughts are habitual, ingrained, conditioned, and limit us in some way?

If we have that many thoughts a day, how do we even notice an individual thought? Often it is a thought that is linked to strong emotion that catches our attention.

Recently, I noticed a pattern of mine that showed up when I was hungry. The pattern would start about half an hour before I would usually eat. My thoughts would get into a discussion something like,

"I'll have to do something about eating soon"
"I don't want to eat, I'm busy working"
"But I can't concentrate unless I eat"
"I've got too much to do. I don't want to eat now"
and so on…

I noticed the recurring thought in these mental conversation of "I don't want to eat". So I stopped for a moment and checked in on that particular thought. I said it both mentally and out loud to get a feel for the origin of the thought.

When I said "I don't want to eat" out loud, it sounded very petulant like a small child rebelling against being fed. I could easily image myself as a willful child not wanting to eat when my mother wanted to feed me. Even without knowing a specific event, I could imagine myself as a small child and apply EFT to the event, the thought, and the feelings that went with it.

What thought have you noticed repeating in your thinking? There are probably quite a few. Pick one (at a time) and say that thought to yourself and out loud. Notice the emotion that accompanies the thought. If you could get a sense at around what age this thought comes from what would it be? What scene can you imagine would match this thought and emotion?

Make a note of the thought, the emotion, and the imagined scene or sense of origin for this one thought.

Once you have the thought, emotion, and sense of the origin of the thought the apply this EFT sequence using this tapping points guide:

Remember to repeat the tapping for a few rounds until you feel you have cleared all the emotions around the thought.

To test if you're done, say the thought to yourself and out loud again and see if it feels the same or has changed in some way. Notice what's different now about that thought since you performed EFT on it.

One of the trickiest things to do is notice something that no longer happens. Check yourself in a few days and see if you can remember having that same thought that you tapped on. If you have done a thorough job with EFT, the only way to have that thought is to think it on purpose! It's no longer happening on automatic.